It could have been worse: Storm of '73

WAGA's coverage of the 1973 storm shows ice-covered trees on power lines; much of Atlanta was in the dark for a week.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Atlanta (CNN) -- All through the night, limbs fell and transformers blew. Each sent a sharp crack that echoed across the neighborhood.

When dawn broke, we could see the culprit -- and the damage: Pines in the park across the street stood naked like telephone poles, stripped of their branches under the weight of ice.

Elsewhere, whole trees were felled. And across the city, the power was out, overhead lines brought down by ice, trees and boughs.

The city in a forest was in the dark. And so were we.

I was 12 when that happened -- in 1973 -- and I spent much of Wednesday waiting for another "storm of the century" to hit Atlanta.

Snow, sleet and ice pummeled the Southeast, and hundreds of thousands lost power. But it was nothing like the ice storm that walloped the city 41 years ago and plunged the Capital of the New South into seven days of survival.

This time, fortunately, most of the area dodged the bullet. That's not to say the storm didn't take a toll. At least two people's deaths were attributed to the weather, and others experienced close calls. But it could have been so much worse.

This is the storm that forecasters feared: trees laden with ice bringing a city of 6 million to its knees for a week.

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It could have been worse: Storm of '73